It's the Final Countdown!

So my little girl turns ONE on Saturday and because it is too hard to talk about that without crying right now, I am going to do a little countdown of my 5 most useful items I had for her during her first year! Let me start by saying that all of my friends and family that served as sounding boards and advice machines over the last year have far outweighed any physical item's importance, but I wanted to be a little practical here in this post!

5. Medela Breast Pump - Katie was exclusively breastfed until about 11 months when I started tapering off and doing some formula and whole milk to wean her. I have nothing against formula (except the price) and was formula fed myself, but I had a personal goal of wanting to do that for Katie as long as I could. I thought I wouldn't make it at first - I cried during most of the first few feedings because of the pain and felt I must be doing something wrong. I eventually got the hang of things and felt very comfortable continuing to breastfeed her even after I went back to work. I got the pump so that I could have milk for her even when I wasn't there. It was a little pricey but well worth it and I definitely got my money's worth out of it! I am proud of myself for sticking to nursing even when I came back to work. It was quite a hassle at times and having to wash all the parts of everything at night was such a chore, but I am so glad I did it for me and for Katie.

 

4. Snuggle Me blanket by Kiddopotamus - Thank you Elizabeth for the recommendation! This little velcro wrap blanket was perfect for getting Katie swaddled and snuggled and ready for bed. I was super paranoid about blankets coming undone and being loose around her face. She was such a kicker and would wake herself up in the night kicking. The Snuggle Me blanket was wonderful and she slept in it EVERY NIGHT well past 6 months!

 

3. Mylicon - Oh My Mylicon! What a fabulous creation! Katie had such a hard time with gas that Mylicon was her appetizer with every feeding! From two weeks of life and on, she had Mylicon all the time. I kept a bottle with me at all times and was a slave to it. If Mylicon asked it of me, I obliged! The Mylicon worked like a charm - she made the cutest grunting noises in her sleep while Mylicon worked it's magic. I even considered taking a swig of it myself at times!

 

2. Goodnight Moon board book - We actually have three of these books that were all given as gifts and they all have some wear on them. Katie loves to read anything, but she really love Goodnight Moon. We read it every night before we go to bed. Doug and I both have it memorized and have added some little personal touches when we read the story to her. For example, we mamke our voices high pitched when we read about the "little mouse." We hit the blank page when it says "goodnight nobody." Katie has gotten so used to the pattern of the story. She points at things as we read it and she waves goodnight throughout the whole book. It helps calm her down before bed and get her in nightime mode.

 

1. Angel Dear Bunny - we have two of these too. This is my favorite gift from anyone and I can't even remember who gave it to us. It's a little bunny head with a very soft blanket attaced to it. It is Katie's special lovey and she has used it to sleep with and travel with and cuddle with since about 3 months old. We call it Bugs Bunny (our nickname for Katie is "bug" so therefore the lovey is Bug's Bunny) and he goes everywhere with us! When she started getting mobile and inevitably bumped her head a few thousand times, the bunny was her best friend and comforter! She loves holding bunny when we go for trips in the car and loves to snuggle up to bunny when it's time to go to bed! Does your child have a lovey? GET ONE!

There were a few things we purchased/received that I didn't use near as much as I thought and a few of them we didn't use at all! I thought her crib was going to be a waste at first - she spent the first 9 weeks of her life sleeping upright in her carseat! We eventually moved to the pack and play and then moved her to her room by about 12 weeks, so all was not lost. The Boppy and the Bumbo are most new mom's best friends but I just didn't use them that much. The Boppy was wonderful at first with nursing but I eventually got tired of looking for it or washing it, that I just went without. The Bumbo was great when we used it, but I just would forget all about it and would sit behing Katie to support her while we played together. I bought a Chicco baby carrier (front pack papoose thing) and used it once. For about 3 minutes. It just wasn't my thing or her thing. The bottle warmer (by First Years) was a total waste as it often bubbled over and left me frustrated that milk was wasted! My most wasted purchases were the two smocked Christmas dresses I bought for her for last year - she wore one of them once and the other one not at all and I have no pictures to document it at all!

I have just a few days left as the mom of a baby - she'll be a big one year old on Saturday. She went to her little weekday church daycare class today with a birthday shirt and birthday girl shoes on - I thought I would let her start celebrating a little early!

My Five Year Plan

If you would've asked me 6.5 years ago what my five year plan was, it woudl've been jumbled with things like world travel, potentially grad school in a foreigh country, becoming a truck drive in order to have something to write a book about, etc. I was just about to graduate college and was ready for a new frontier. No dating prospects on the horizon and my life was ahead of me with endless choices.

Then one day my mom "accidentally" set me up with one of her co-worker's sons. Are you kidding me? I don't date people really at all, much less people I've never met or heard of. But for some reason, I gave the ok to this and after several emails and one phone call, I was booked for my first date! One year to the day after our first date, we were engaged and 6 monts later we were married!

Today is our 5 year anniversary and I just can't believe how much has changed over the years. I find more reasons to love Doug every day! We have such a good time together and have really become more intentional about the time we get to spend together as life has gotten busier! He is such an amazing father to Katie - I find myself sitting out a lot of times in the evening just to watch the two of them play together. He makes her laugh like no other and I'm actually a little jealous of that!

 

Happy Anniversary sweetheart! And clearly, we need to start taking more pictures of us - this is the last one I have of just the two of us- taken at the Battery in Charleston after the Bridge Run in April 2008.

And if there was ever any question about Doug's patience and his heart - just look at what he has to put up with from me.

Who wouldn't want to try to balance themselves on top of cannonballs when they are 8 weeks pregnant and have a rear the size of Texas. The laws of physics make that virtually impossible.

 

Is Red my color or what? Oh, you thought this picture was funny because of my hair? How superficial.

 

Flips on a swingset at this age? Miraculously, no one was harmed in the taking of this picture!

 

Thank you Doug for your tolerance and understanding for 5 years, but especially this last year as I have cried more than I ever thought possible at the stresses of becoming a new mom! And although you may not know it, I have smiled more than ever too! I'm so excited about our new house, our soon to be one year old, and even our date tonight! I love you!

We Are Family!

I got all my cousins with me! So far, there have been 3 attempts to get pictures of Katie with her cousins Dylan and Cole. I will let you decide if they have been successful.

Attempt 1: Let me set the scene for you. It was Christmas and Grandma Jones had bought really cute matching sweaters for the babies. Dylan is a little over 1 and Cole is right at 2 months old and Katie was about 6 weeks old. Here are the results:
Dylan points at Katie - she starts to cry...Not sure if there was actual contact during the point, but she cried nonetheless.

Katie still crying - potentially harder than before.

Let's move Katie to the middle and maybe she'll stop crying. Nope.

This photo/crying session was enough to send this "postpartum-ing" mom into a tailspin about why her child was the only uncooperative one.

Attempt 2 Fast Forward to February 2009: It's a week before I return to work from maternity leave and Lindsay and I brave some wintry weather to visit Melissa and Dylan in Raleigh. Successful?
Once again, Katie crying. Dylan fine, Cole fine.

Oh, Katie stopped crying for a brief moment. Perhaps she was interrupted by Dylan's crying. I think he was sympathy crying for her.


Attempt 3: October 2009, The kids are older now and are much more cooperative. Let me know which one you think is suitable for framing.
Here you go kids, all of you sit right here.

Wait Cole, sit for just another second. Katie, please smile.

Ok Dylan, I guess you can stand - you are the oldest after all. But katie, take the bunny out your mouth and please smile.

Doesn't this remind you of the scene in Anchorman when the guys won't ever look the same way as Veronica Corningstone?

Maybe kicking her will make her smile.

Maybe if we shake keys at the kids, they will smile. But maybe we should get the keys out of the picture next time.

How about a new location - this cold cement is not doing the trick.

Get me away from this slide!

Wait - remember the keys from the first location. They're back and really making someone angry!


So, did you find one for a frame or even a scrapbook or facebook profile picture? Me neither.

In Dylan's defense - he had just had one heck of a two year old party complete with a fantastic train cake and he did not want to just sit there.

In Cole's defense - he was the most behaved and cooperative despite missing some nap time for the party.

In Katie's defense - she had a mega cold and had not slept well at all the night before, she was out in the cold and was wearing a boy's jacket. She probably decided not to smile because she didn't want any of them making it to a frame when she was dressed like a boy.

I don't see this getting much better as we have a new cousin set to be delivered close to Thanksgiving! I just keep envisioning those beautiful beach pictures of put-together families that are all smiling. A girl can dream, right?

When the Leaves Come Falling Down

That's when you know it's time for the FAIR! We took a day off of work a few weeks ago and made a family trip to the fair. It was a beautiful day but definitely not Fall-like at all. We took Katie to the petting zoo and she fell in love with the lambs. They stuck their heads out their gate and wanted to talk to her. I was afraid for her to get too close because she might pull their hair like she does to Jack.

 

We strolled around the fair to take in all the sights and after about ten minutes, we looked down to find that our little fair goer was fast asleep. She was actually slumped over and I thought she was watching her feet, but she was out! We picked her up and let her sleep while we enjoyed the sand sculptures and some Fiske Fries!

 

We woke her up to take a ride on the carousel. The nice carnival worker let me ride for free but made me pay for her. To me, it would make since to charge an adult and not an 11 month old, but it didn't change the price regardless. I wasn't going to try to reason with him since it made no financial difference! She really enjoyed the carousel but every time we got around to where Doug was standing with the camera, she had a sleepy look on her face. Then as soon as we would pass him, the wind caught her hair and her face just lit up! Oh well, at least I have the mental memory!

 

At the end of our trip, we let Katie have a few pinches of our elephant ear (covered in powdered sugar). This was really her first taste of anything sweet as I have been holding out for the birthday cake spectacular! She really liked it and kept reaching for more. I feel sure I have created a monster!